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Salon
Salon
Politics
Meaghan Ellis

Lawyer schools Jordan on "hearsay"

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

An attorney quickly fired back on Twitter when an account linked to Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, openly criticized the House Select Committee hearings by describing the groundbreaking Tuesday testimony as "all hearsay."

According to HuffPost, the attorney responded to a verified Twitter account for the House Judiciary GOP. The account, which names the Republican lawmaker as its ranking member, offered a critical assessment of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony.

"It's literally all hearsay evidence. What a joke," the tweet mockingly said Hutchinson's testimony about former President Donald Trump's final days in office.

Hutchinson, who previously worked as an aide for former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, "testified Tuesday that Trump said he 'didn't f-ing care' that his supporters at a 'Stop the Steal' rally on Jan. 6, 2021 had weapons." Hutchinson also said that the former president "lunged at a Secret Service agent in the presidential limo when the agent refused to take Trump to the Capitol and instead insisted they return to the White House."

A Twitter account for attorney Ken White quickly weighed in to disagree with the House Judiciary GOP's post. "Only some of it is hearsay," the account tweeted. "Need help understanding the difference? I'm here to help you. I'm hoping to help you."

He also offered a quick analogy to support his arguments. "So if a player comes up to you and says 'hey coach I went to the team doctor for a bloody nose and he grabbed my genitals instead,' that's not hearsay because he's not repeating an out-of-court statement, it's something that person perceived," he argued.

He added, "But if people came to you and said 'hey coach a bunch of people are complaining that the team doctor is perving on them in the showers and doing gratuitous genital exams'," that would be hearsay, because they're talking about other people's statements.

"Now, say you were being sued for something -- say, some sort of grotesque dereliction of duty for failing to report or stop the serial sexual abuse of people under your care -- and a witness said 'I told coach about it and he said I have nothing to do with this.'"

In conclusion, the account tweeted: "That's not hearsay either, because in that case you're a party opponent and a statement of a party opponent is not hearsay. Just like first-hand witness testimony about what Trump said would be a statement of a party opponent in, say, a prosecution of Trump."

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